Hopes abound for a deal on a “permanent ceasefire” with Houthi leaders by the end of April
A delegation representing Saudi Arabia and Oman is due to meet with the Houthi leadership in Sanaa next week to sign a permanent ceasefire ending the eight-year war in Yemen, several outlets have reported, citing officials familiar with the talks.
Sources told Reuters that an agreement could be announced by April 20, the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan.
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg was in Muscat earlier this week, where he met with senior Omani and Houthi officials to discuss the peace process.
On Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition lifted its naval blockade of Yemen, allowing most ships to dock directly in Aden and other southern ports without stopping in Jeddah for security checks. The blockade was imposed in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen on behalf of the government the Houthis had deposed.
Yemen peace talks intensify after Iran-Saudi deal
Read more Yemen peace talks intensify after Iran-Saudi deal
Meanwhile, the Lebanon-based outlet Al-Mayadeen reported that Riyadh had summoned leaders of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government on Friday, to brief them on the talks with the Houthis. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman presented “the solution for a way out of the war on Yemen,” the outlet’s sources said.
According to Al-Mayadeen, the Saudi plan envisions extending the ceasefire by another year, followed by steps to reopen Yemeni ports. Riyadh is then expected to officially announce the end of the war and its intervention in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and the UN will subsequently sponsor talks between the Houthis and rival Yemeni factions, seeking a two-year transition period to establish a new government, reports have indicated.
The diplomatic breakthrough after eight years of fighting was made possible by last month’s agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to re-establish diplomatic relations, brokered by China.
According to UN estimates, the conflict in Yemen has claimed at least 377,000 lives, of which 150,000 were due to violence and the rest from starvation and disease. Another 4 million people have been displaced.
Any moment now I am expecting John Cleese (a veteran of Monty Python) to jump out of the bushes and announce the creation of the Ministry of Silly Wars, with Donald Trump as the deranged leader. For you youngsters out there, Monty Python’s skit, The Ministry of Silly Walks, helped make the members of MP legends. I had to reference Monty Python because the line of bullshit the Trump administration is feeding the American people and the world about the amazing, obliterating US attack on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, is more ridiculous that all of the silly walks pictured in the following video:
My hopes that Donald Trump would finally act like a responsible adult are dashed. He’s a dangerous buffoon. While the team around him are working frantically to maintain the fiction that Trump has a vision and is calling the shots on the foreign policy front, he is careening around the globe like an out-of-control cue ball on a billiards table. It started a week ago… first, he claimed...
Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the launch of the Fujian, China's first aircraft carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Official media said China is about to enter a three-aircraft-carrier era, with the Fujian expected to enter service by 2025.
After the launch of the Fujian on June 17, 2022, it carried out its first sea trial from May 1 to 8 in 2024. Since then, the Fujian has completed multiple sea trials, accumulating more than 100 days of sea trial, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported on Tuesday.
Wei Dongxu, a Chinese military affairs commentator, said that the aircraft carrier Fujian has been making steady progress in sea trials, and is expected to be commissioned within this year, CCTV News reported.
With a full displacement of more than 80,000 tons, the Fujian is the world's first conventionally powered aircraft carrier to feature electromagnetic catapult technologies, according to CCTV News. The report noted that it will carry a wide variety of carrier-borne...
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China and Central Asian countries have explored and formed the China-Central Asia Spirit, which features mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual assistance, and the pursuit of common modernization through high-quality development.
Xi made the remarks in his speech at the second China-Central Asia Summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Xi said that the Chinese side has decided to establish three cooperation centers and a trade facilitation platform within the China-Central Asia cooperation mechanism.
When addressing the summit, Xi said these institutions include the China-Central Asia poverty reduction cooperation center, the China-Central Asia education exchange cooperation center, the China-Central Asia desertification control cooperation center, as well as the China-Central Asia trade facilitation cooperation....more below
